Antoine Charles Louis de Lasalle - Campaign in Italy

Campaign in Italy

Lasalle campaigned in Belgium and through family friendship with François Christophe Kellermann he won back his grade of lieutenant and became aide-de-camp of then General Kellermann on 10 March 1795. Flourishing with the challenges of staff work, the young soldier stayed with Kellermann when he transferred to the Army of Italy on 6 May 1795. Kellermann, the Grand Archivist of the Grand Orient de France initiated Lasalle in freemasonry. He was employed as assistant to Kellermann’s son, Adjutant-General François Étienne de Kellermann in May, 1796. Lasalle was quickly promoted to Captain on 7 November, the same year. Quite the drinking and swearing master, Lasalle was actually charming and witty but preferred to cultivate an image of a rough, swaggering soldier. He was known to sneak behind enemy lines to enjoy some entertaining times with women, even ones of the enemies. His weakness, especially in his early years was in fact his flamboyance, which time and again verged on the reckless. He worked hard and played hard and before his marriage was a notorious womanizer.

Lasalle was known for always ousting the commander-in-chief, spending two or three hours a day playing music with General Paul Thiébault, and being an incomparable prankster within the army. At dinner he once told General Leclerc, “I have a unique destiny in your army, my general. I have given you a taste for hunting, given General Thiébault a taste for music, and all that remains is to give General Monnet a taste for spirit!” Captured early on in Italy, Lasalle was exchanged and took up a love affair with an Italian marquise in Vicenza. This led to an incident on 17 December 1796 in which he led a party of troopers to his lover's house — deep within Austrian lines. Lasalle was a good nobleman and fluent in many languages, including German, so he deceived the various patrols that gave him and his men trouble. After making love to his marquise, he left at dawn revealing his French uniform in the light. Lasalle and his men were found and surrounded by 100 Austrian hussars. Once he was discovered he escaped by bluffing and fighting his way out eventually leaping his horse over the parapet of a bridge to avoid capture. With only 18 men he routed 100 Austrian hussars but in the heat of the pursuit he found himself isolated.

He was then alone and surrounded by four of these Austrian hussars that refused to surrender. Lasalle fought his way out, injuring all four hussars, lost his horse, and swam across the Bacchiglione River. He arrived on the banks of the Bacchiglione regrouped with his men as they gave him a captured Austrian horse to ride back to camp uninjured. This incident brought Lasalle to Napoleon Bonaparte's attention the morning after when he rode a captured Austrian horse on parade. Napoleon questioned Lasalle and Lasalle told him it was a horse from an Austrian hussar patrol in Vicenza. Napoleon shouted “Are you crazy?” and was preparing a court martial until Lasalle gave him the information that he obtained during the skirmish. Napoleon saw in Lasalle a daring and courageous man that could be a useful in missions of infiltration behind enemy lines where one needs to make his own decisions with haste and good judgment. Napoleon pardoned Lasalle and even made him chef d'escadron of the 7th Regiment of Hussars on 6 January 1797 by only saying “Commandant Lasalle, remember that name.”

He justified his rapid progress and reputation when at the Battle of Rivoli the young daredevil spurred ahead with the entire available cavalry — 26 horsemen of the 22nd Horse Chasseurs. As a result, an entire battalion of the Deutschmeister Regiment threw down its arms in panic and fled. A battery of 15 Austrian guns blasted French dragoons, while two columns of infantry, one going towards the gorge and the other the Trambasore Heights were led forward supported by cavalry under Charles Leclerc and Lasalle. The packed Austrian soldiers in the gorge fled when their own dragoons were trampling them over in panic. And likewise the dispersed infantry on the Heights were unable to hold once Lasalle and the French cavalry got in their midst. Lasalle and his men continued to support Generals Lebley and Vial until the battle was over.

The Battle of Rivoli was won with 5,000 French casualties and 14,000 enemy Austrian casualties including eleven captured flags, six of which were captured by Lasalle. After the battle all of the battle trophies were piled up before Napoleon and Lasalle lay exhausted a few feet away on top of his six flags. Napoleon excitedly stated, “Go to sleep on your flags, Lasalle, for it was well-deserved!” Lasalle was best friends with one of the most unpredictable and unstable men of the army, François Fournier-Sarlovèze. François Fournier, later General François Fournier-Sarlovese, was probably the most daring, unruly, and unpredictable senior officer ever to serve Napoleon. Discipline appeared to be an anathema to him, and rules and indeed orders, were to be flouted or ignored, should he consider them unnecessary or troublesome. He grew into a master of all arms and became a noted and feared duelist. Lasalle and Fournier got into many scrapes together in the pursuit of women and drinking exploits. They also got themselves into and out of a whole series of potentially serious and dangerous incidents.

Lasalle then took up a dangerous affair with Joséphine Berthier, wife of Victor-Lèopold Berthier and sister-in-law to Marshal Louis Alexandre Berthier. She gave birth to Lasalle’s son in 1797 but he was raised by Berthier. He later married her and is reported to have remained passionately devoted to his wife. In March, Commandant Lasalle is reported to have many exploits along the Piave River. The following month, following the lead of 16 men from the new Corps of Guides, Lasalle entered the Vadrozone, occupied by enemy Uhlans. He charged with intrepidity, forcing them to evacuate the city and retake the Tagliamento. Lasalle was the first to cross the river for further prosecution of the fleeing Uhlans. Lasalle and his men successfully drove the enemy out of the Tagliamento River. The campaign in Italy ended with an overwhelming French Victory.